


Opportunities

by drunknpylades



Series: edge of memory [5]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Memory Loss, Memory Related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 09:46:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13808634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunknpylades/pseuds/drunknpylades
Summary: Edge is just trying to get away from everything for a little while. Too bad someone else had the same idea.





	Opportunities

It had happened again. Those little blips of memory that seemed so clear after a resurrection. So close that he could reach out and touch them if he wanted to. 

He’d only tried that once. It had been like reaching into a live circuit connected directly to every nerve in his body and pulling.

Edge had woken up in the Tower’s medical ward with drums in his head and the lingering feeling of cold metal on his forehead. It had been almost two days before he’d even remembered his own -not really his- name.

Ever since then, whenever the memories claw their way up through the fog Edge shoves them down again. There are only two images that stay with him, two pieces of his old life that refuse to fade until days after a resurrection. 

Blue eyes and the way someone’s hair feels running through his fingers. 

It’s after one such time that Edge arrives back on the newly renovated Tower, memories still floating around his head and sharper than ever, when he literally trips over Candace. 

In his blind rush to get somewhere high, away from the press of bodies and worried eyes, he’d failed to notice that there was another Guardian already taking up residence in one of his hideaways. 

Cetus ducks behind his shoulder as Edge manages to catch himself before falling over completely. The Ghost has been silent since they landed and Edge appreciates the way they seem to anticipate his moods and act accordingly. Even if the lack of a warning has gotten him into his current predicament. Dealing with an actual living thing hadn't been in his immediate plans.

“Shit! Sorry, wasn’t exactly expecting company all the way up here. You alright?” She doesn’t move to actually help him and Edge is eternally grateful that he doesn’t have to touch anyone right now. 

“Fine,” he answers. “Just hadn’t planned on running into anyone else.” 

Candace smiles a bit at the reply that’s so similar to her own. “Well, you know what they say about great minds and all that.” She goes back to looking out over the City. Seemingly putting his presence out of her mind and returning to whatever thoughts had drove her up this high.

Edge slips past her to the lip of the platform where two beams jut out into open air. He’d strung an old Crucible banner between them his second time up here. A sort of homespun hammock if you could even call it that. 

It’s since been made more secure. A ragged looking blanket balled up at one end and a pile of books have been added since his last visit.   
Edge crouches down over one beam, touching his gloved fingers to the cover of one book. Recalling the Past: A Guide to Memory Recall.

Something roiling and cold grips at his insides and Edge stands quickly, eyes darting to where Candace has very clearly just looked away from him. There’s a question on the tip of his tongue. Words tripping over themselves behind his teeth that are begging to come out but Edge grinds them to dust between his molars. He chooses instead to simply cross to the other beam and stretch out along its length, arms behind his head and the sun on his face. 

Cetus looks between the two of them with an irritated little chirp that Candace’s Ghost echoes.   
Both Guardians choose to ignore them.

Eventually Cetus huffs a mechanical little sigh and settles themself on Edge’s breastbone before going into low power mode. The little light of his facial optic powering down to almost nothing.

For a time it’s quiet. The only sounds around them are the wind and the hum of ships coming and going from the hangar below. The distant murmur of voices is almost nothing at this distance and Edge feels himself drifting into that place between sleep and wakefulness. 

He can feel that sharp chill of metal against his forehead again, see smiling blue behind his own eyelids. Anxiety creeps up his chest like oily fingers to drag him down into the memories and Edge barely keeps them at bay with thoughts of his present. Replacing the old with the new. He trades one set of blue eyes for mechanical ones. Swaps out the feel of soft hair against his palms for tough leather under his fingers. 

“No one ever really talks about this part, do they?”  
Her voice jolts him out his memories and Edge has never been more thankful for conversation. 

“No,” he replies. His voice is thick with the remnants of those words he never said. Saturated with memories he doesn’t want and emotion he still doesn’t have control over even after so long. “No they don’t.”

His eyes are still closed but he feels her gaze on him. The air is now heavy with all the words they’re not saying.

“You ever hear the rumor about a Ghost having the voice of someone from your past?” Her tone implies that his answer doesn’t matter. Nothing has ever mattered more.

Cetus hums on his chest, little light still dim and yet Edge knows he’s listening. Waiting for an answer almost as much as Candace -as Ace- is.  
That anxiety and fear and sheer insanity that’s been clawing at him all seems to fall away between one moment and the next as he decides on his next words. Maybe this is what he’s been so desperately in need of. An opportunity to finally let the past fade away and embrace the future he has now. 

Those eyes in his memory seem to fade behind a fog when Edge opens his eyes, looking up into the blue sky as those last strands of hair slip through his fingers. 

“I have.” He smiles. 

And even though he can’t see it, Ace’s smile is a beautiful mirror image of his own.

**Author's Note:**

> A friend in my Clan had the idea about Ghosts and voices from the past. I just took it and ran.


End file.
